LForce: Family Affair
by BatmanLoonaticsFan96
Summary: Zack finally wakes up from his coma, but the aftermath changes everything... The story continues with a heap of family, friendship, romance, betrayal, loss, pain, and war... Sequel to "Double Trouble"
1. Chapter 1

L-Force: Family Affair

Yay! Another one! 5th story! And it's an important one... Anyway, hope you like it, blah, blah, blah... Well, Zack's waking up a little too much evil. If you've read the past few stories (which I hope/assume you have), you'll know these facts (yay, recap!):

1: Deirdre, the leader of the Dark Side-the evil team-, has awakened an evil called Wake, who is an Oasis, a combination of every magic creature to have ever existed.

2: Zack killed Deirdre's brother Tyler (technically by accident) and awakened a dark force inside himself that causes him to turn evil every time he experiences pain and then back to normal when he receives another shock of equal amount. Deirdre and co. planted 3 bombs in the Loonatics' HQ and made sure they exploded while Zack was inside, putting him in a coma.

3: Cassandra, one of the Dark Side, is having thoughts that she's not meant to be truly evil...

4: One of the Dark Side's latest recruits, Claire, is a clairvoyant (get it?), a Witch, and has the ability to bring someone back from the dead in exchange for someone else's life, but she didn't get these powers from the meteor. In fact, she doesn't even know about the meteor...

And 5: A while back, the Loonatics and L-Force had split up and then gotten back together with the help of a new friend, Gail, who left, never to return...

Now, on with the story!

Chapter 1

_Zack was sitting on a bench in Acme Park next to his sister. "I can't believe you're still hanging out with me after everything I put you through."_

"_Hey," Zara said, "You're my brother. My _twin_ brother. It's the least I can do."_

_Zack smiled and hugged her. But while her eyes were shut, he got out a dagger and pierced her in the heart, letting her blood run over his hands. "Well, I really appreciate it."_

Zack was really lying in a hospital bed, unable to wake up from this bizarre chain of dreams.

* * *

Wake lied on the floor of her room. Her eyes were closed, too. Suddenly, she shifted positions, opened her eyes, and smiled. "It's time. He's awakening. He will be ours."

Deirdre walked in. "The death-bringer's waking up?"

Wake sat up and looked at her. "Precisely. I didn't believe he would reawake so quickly. If he is to be my successor, you'd think he would've waited 1000 days at least for some sort of similarity between our rests."

"Been 1000 hours," Deirdre pointed out, "Of course, I guess 40 days is a pretty short coma."

* * *

"Zack's been out of it too long," Zara said, hugging a pillow against her chest as she rocked back and forth on the couch in the lobby of the hideout.

"Zara, I'll bet he'd wake up sooner if you stopped worrying about him," Kyra said.

Zara let her legs fall off the couch and put the pillow next to her, sighing. "You're probably right. There's no telling how much our 'twin bond' was strengthened by our mutant-ness. So when's that new recruit getting here?"

"No idea."

"Whoa, whoa!" said Duck, "'New _recruit_'? Singular? Last time we got 4!"

"Exactly," said Kyra, "Everyone with powers is already picking sides. Some of them are hiding because they don't wanna get involved in this. But I'll bet Ye Ol' Dark Side is fishing them out and turning them. And a lot of the rest of the mutants are actually _going for_ 'Ye Ol' Dark Side'."

"Actually," Tech said as he came into the lobby to meet the group, "I have a…surprise arranged. And hint: it doesn't involve technology this time…well, maybe a little."

"You called in more new recruits?" Lexi asked.

"How did you guess it?"

"Hold it!" said Nathan, "Elliott's coming."

In came a blonde boy as Nathan imitated a fanfare. "Don't," Elliott said, stopping Nathan.

Kyra smiled as she walked over there. "Please excuse my…friend. He tends to get a little annoying."

"Hey!" Nathan said.

"She's not lying," Elliott said.

"How would you know?" asked Nathan, "You just met me!"

"I'm a lie detector and a truth enforcer," Elliott explained, "I would sense if she was lying…and sometimes if she's kidding."

"Well, now Duck can stop making our interrogate-ees wear my shoes and dance to disco music," said Lexi.

"Aw, come on!" Duck said, "Can't we still do that?"

Kyra smiled. "No. But she's right. Now we have a way to make sure no one ever lies to us. Take that, Dark Side!"

* * *

"Take that, Darth Vader!" Cheyenne cried, typing away on her laptop. She was playing a video game and using her super-brain to plow her way through each level. Her character's light saber sliced off Darth Vader's hand and he fell back. "Yay! I won!" Meredith came up and shut the laptop. "Hey!"

"Could you be any more childish?" Meredith asked, scoffing and rolling her eyes.

Deirdre came in. "Don't worry. All her childish games are about to be over…"

* * *

_Zara looked at Zack. "Why are you doing this?"_

_"Come on, sis." He started advancing on her. "You think I need to depend on you to live? Twin bond or not, I'm my own person here…and you are insignificant."_

_"You're not a monster like this, Zack, and we both know it," Zara said as she backed away, "Your powers keep exploding."_

_"I don't think so. I'm moving on."_

_"To what? The Dark Side? Deirdre, Cassandra, and the Vamps? It's not worth it—"_

_"You heard their head Vamp, Zar. You have no idea what's coming." He grabbed her. "And I'm one of them." He snapped her neck and dropped her dead body on the ground. When she was gone, he smiled and started laughing maniacally…_

Zack twitched on his bed in the hospital and his eyes opened. But they weren't their normal blue…they were reddish-black and not turning back…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zack looked around. He saw the heart monitor and the IV connected to his arm and realized that he was in a hospital. He knocked the covers off the bed and yanked the tube out of his arm before walking off. He walked down the hall and saw a boy about his age coming up.

"Excuse me," said the boy, "Do you know how to get to the east wing?"

"What?"

"Oh. I guess I'll ask someone else." The boy started to walk off.

Zack stared after him. "The tower!"

The boy faced him. "Huh?"

"I need to get to the Loonatics' headquarters now!"

"Well, you can't. I mean…the Loonatics' tower isn't even there anymore."

Zack stared at him. Then his memories started coming back from just before he'd gone into his coma… "What happened?"

"Some big tragedy… I heard it was 3 bombs that some bad guys planted. They almost lost one of their teammates—"

"What day is it?" Zack asked, knowing that he was that "teammate."

The boy looked at him before thinking this over. "Friday."

"What date? The date!"

"October 19th."

"What year?"

The boy kept looking at him.

"What year?"

"Maybe I should get you some help—"

Zack grabbed him and threw him through a window. He jumped out the window after him, landing on his feet next to him. He grabbed the boy and lifted him up, making him start panting. "Oh, good. You're still alive." He punched him in the face, knocking him back. "This is no fun if you're dead."

* * *

Claire sat up straighter in a bean bag chair in the lobby of the Dark Side's single-story building. "What was that?"

"What was what?" asked Josephine.

"I felt something…"

"Do you think your clairvoyance is acting up?" asked Xavier.

"I don't know…maybe. It feels like something's coming. Something's rising."

"I wonder if that death-bringer is waking up," said Cheyenne, typing away again.

"I hope not," said Xavier, "From what I heard, he's big into against us. Wait till he hears that these 4 almost killed his sister!"

"She came onto us!" Loraine cried.

"The death-bringer isn't gonna be a threat," said Deirdre, "At least, not to us. Our numbers are growing."

"Speaking of which, I'll get that," Claire said, getting up from her chair.

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

"OK, that was weird," said Priscilla.

Claire smirked at her, then opened the door.

In came 5 boys and 2 girls.

"Ooh, party!" said Astrid. Meredith stomped on her foot. "Ow!"

"Airhead Astrid!"

The brunette girl stifled a giggle. "Alright, that one's good."

"Mickey," said the blonde girl, making the brunette turn to her, "Shut up!" She shoved her back.

Mickey made a face at her behind her back.

"Ignore Mickey and Cici," said a robin boy, "All they do is shape-shift…" He pointed to Mickey. "…and throw rocks." He pointed to Cici.

Cici scoffed and held out her hand, making a 5-inch-diameter rock hit him in the back of the head and knocked him over. "Boulder-dash, Robin!" She looked at Mickey and burst out laughing. "Get it?"

"OK, now it's my turn to say 'shut up!'"

A hare helped Robin stand back up. "You OK?"

"Just fine for a robin that was just knocked unconscious by a girl with rock, thank you!"

The hare glared at him. "Like you couldn't have dodged it!"

"How, Flynn? With my fields? You know they only work on mutant powers and not on objects they throw!"

"Well, I could have knocked it back with my powers!"

"By making it…what? Grow legs and dance away?"

"Heh?" asked Deirdre.

"Personification of inanimate objects," Flynn explained, "Helps in battle by making…rock monsters and stuff."

"Animation?" asked Jeff.

"Not quite, but similar," said a dark-haired boy with dark eyes, "He actually brought a hedge that was cut to the shape of an elephant to life once."

"Wow…"

"And I repeat: heh?" Deirdre said.

"Yeah, ditto," said the dark-haired boy.

"Like you could've done any better!" said Flynn.

"With an army of flying squirrels? Yeah, I could!"

"I'm out of 'hehs'!" Deirdre said.

"You summon flying squirrels?" asked Dominic.

"Not really…OK, yes! I got a joke power!"

Mickey started laughing at him.

"Emmett can't do anything!" Cici mocked, doubling over in a fit of her own laughter.

A grey squirrel boy waved his hand and Mickey and Cici's laughter was silenced…although they were still laughing.

Mickey stopped laughing and stopped Cici, who realized they were making no noise and started silently ranting at the squirrel.

"Turn 'em back, Zeke!" Emmett commanded.

"No, wait!" said Robin, "I like it like this!"

Zeke the grey squirrel turned the volume back on.

"Thank you," Cici said, "Mr. I-Can-Make-Anything-Into-A-Silent-Movie-So-Why-Not-Become-An-Obnoxious-Control-Freak!"

"Bit of a long nickname there, isn't it?" asked Axel.

Deirdre looked around for the 5th boy. "So that just leaves—where'd he go?"

"Down here!"

Deirdre looked down to see a mouse by her foot. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Oh, Tex is more than he looks," said Zeke.

Deirdre looked at him for a second and then back at the mouse named Tex to see that the 1'3" mouse had grown so tall that his head was about to crash through the roof. "Whoa…" The mouse shrunk back down. "OK…" She backed away. "Well, on the bright side, they have a shrinker and we beat him out! Take that, Loonies!"

* * *

"Take that, you dumb barrel-throwing monkey!" Duck cried, playing Donkey Kong on a handheld the next morning.

"Duck!" Kyra yelled, "Seriously?" She sighed. "When is Tech's recruit getting here?"

"I'm the one who called them and I don't even know," Tech said, coming into the room, "All I know is that they said they'd show up this weekend."

"Well, it's Saturday morning," said Zara, "So where are they?"

_DING DONG!_

"I guess that'd be them," said Nathan, opening the elevator to let in their new recruit.

In came a young teenage boy.

"Alright, that's not the one I—"

"Howie, wait for me!" In walked a young woman with long blonde hair and gentle, sparkling green eyes…she seemed familiar…

"Gail?" Zara cried, excitedly.

Gail looked at Zara and smiled. The 2 squealed and hugged.

"Man, it's been way too long!" said Zara.

"It's only been 3 months," Gail said.

"Yeah…well…there you go?"

"Nice try."

"So what's with the kid?" asked Duck.

"I'm not a kid! I'm 12!" Howie cried.

"He's my cousin," said Gail, "I was supposed to watch him, so he ended up coming with me. Boy, am I glad I'm a Witch and he's not. We'd have to be dealing with _all-out_ puberty right now."

"Wait, you're a Witch?" asked Kyra.

"That didn't come up last time?" asked Gail. She then noticed Tech. "Hey, Tech! Good to see you again. Good old scientist coyote friend." She turned back to the others. "Who I have not spoken to!" They all smiled at her. "Or had contact with! In any way whatsoever!" Zara stifled a giggle. "Especially on the phone."

Tech giggled. "It's OK, Gail. They know I called you."

"Great, 'cause I'm a terrible liar."

"I don't really care," said Zara, "It's kind of nice to see you again, all not shadow-demon thing…"

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Zara laughed at that joke. "So where's Zack?" Zara's smile faded. Kyra gave her a sympathetic look. "I mean, I know he'd probably be a little upset about the whole trying to kill you all thing, but come on! I was possessed!"

Tech's ears drooped. "I thought she knew."

Gail stopped smiling. "What?"

Zara sat down. "Zack's in a coma."

Gail processed this. "Oh…" She sighed and looked at Zara. "I didn't know. I'm sorry. I always thought something might happen to one of you with a job like this, but I didn't think that—"

That's when the phone rang.

Zara stormed over there. "Oh, come on! We were having a moment!" She picked up the phone. "_WHAT?_" Suddenly, her eyes widened. "What?" Everyone looked at her as she started smiling. "Really? That's great—huh?" She started listening and her smile faded…

Kyra walked over there. "Zara?" She waved her hand over her eyes. "Hello?" She took the phone. "Hello?" Nothing. She hung up. "Zara, they hung up. Zara!"

Zara blinked and looked at her. "Oh, hey, Kyra. When did you get here?"

"Zara, what is it?" asked Lexi.

Zara looked at her…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"What do you mean he just wasn't there?" a doctor asked a nurse as Zara made her way down the hall with Kyra, Nathan, Trinity, Gail, Tech, Rev, Ace, and Lexi following a ways behind.

"I don't know!" the nurse answered, "I came in at 8 to check the monitors, like I always do, and no one was here. I haven't touched a thing."

"Coma patients do not just get up and walk away!"

Zara knocked on the open door to acknowledge their presence.

The nurse looked at them. "It's the sister…" she told the doctor.

He nodded and went over to the group. "Hey. I'm sorry, but we haven't found your brother yet."

"So, let me get this straight," said Tech, "You knew Zack was an important member of L-Force whose life was in danger because of a war between mutants and THERE'S NO SECURITY ON THIS FLOOR?"

"You don't understand. There's no way this boy was going to wake up. This can't be happening…"

"Well, it is," Zara said, obliviously staring at the floor with her arm pressed against the doorway, "He's stronger than you think, you know. He never was one to play by the rules."

"There's one other thing you may need to be examining…" The doctor pointed them to the security room a few floors down.

Tech and Rev hacked into the security cameras in the alley beside the hospital and showed it. The picture was too fuzzy up close to reveal who it was, but there was a boy beating up another boy and then pushing both of them behind a dumpster and coming out later wearing the beaten boy's clothes.

"Whoa," Tech said, "Someone broke out of here and really broke."

"I got a feeling there's more to this one," said Gail.

"There's always more, Gail," said Ace.

"Welcome to the superhero business," said Lexi.

"Oh, I'm happy to be a part of this one," said Gail, "But now we have to find Zack _and_ this crazy guy."

"Uh…about-that," said Rev, "The-hospital-records-say-that-nobody-else-was-reported-to-have-broken-out."

"What?" Kyra cried. She ran over there. "Move!" She bumped Rev off to the side and typed a little. "He's right! This doesn't make any sense!"

"So the question becomes…I don't know what the question becomes," said Nathan.

"Yeah, ditto," said Trinity, "I have no idea what's going on here!"

"Maybe if we find Zack, we find our answer," Zara suggested…

* * *

Cassandra was sitting on one of the bean bags in the main room of the Dark Side's building. She sat there reading a book and listening to some music on her MP3 Music Blaster 5000.

Up came Loraine. She saw Cassandra there and smiled… She backed up a little, leaned over the side, and yanked the ear-buds out of the MP3 with one hand and grabbed the book with the other.

"HEY!" Cassandra cried. She jumped up and started chasing Loraine.

"Mere, Josie! Cassie in the middle!" Loraine shouted, tossing the book to Meredith and the MP3 to Josephine.

Cassandra started to pull off her gloves. Meredith and Josephine quickly handed the book and music player back to Loraine who tossed them at Cassandra. Cassandra tossed them in her bag and stomped on Loraine's foot.

"OW!" Loraine grabbed her foot and started hopping on her other leg. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with _me_? What's wrong with _you_? Ever since I joined this team, I've gotten nothing but mocking and mistreatment and pain! I shouldn't have to put up with this!"

"Well," Deirdre said as she came up, "you're gonna have to deal with it. You're one of us now."

"NO, I'M NOT! I never was and I never will be! I'm…" She grabbed her bag and ran. "I'm one of them." She left as fast as possible and ran down the street. "I need to find the Loonatics and L-Force now!"

"Great!" Deirdre cried, "We lost Cassandra! After all this recruiting, we lost one!"

"It's just one," said Jeff, "We can top her."

"You heard her," said Deirdre, "She said she's one of…_them_. If the Loonies get a hold of her, they've gotten a hold of us. We can't risk that!" She turned to Loraine. "You've gotta go find her and turn her!"

"No need." Everyone turned to see Zack in the doorway. "You've got me now."

Deirdre smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Zack walked up to them. "I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here."

"Not at all," said Deirdre, "I know everything about what happened."

"Well, you would. You headed that night…sending the porcupine, the tug-o-war boy, and the engraver after Zadavia—tug-o-boy to take out the door, the girl to engrave the words in her throat and force her to say them into the videophone, and Poison-pine to kill her when the job was done—knowing that the Loonies would be weaker without her; having Loraine sire a guy and raise him immediately to keep the other Loonies busy while you and Cassandra and the other Vamps planted the bombs in the tower; making the engraver send me a message you knew would get to me while they left the docks; and making sure the bombs wouldn't kill me, just send me into a coma so you could use evil me when I woke up. Well, here I am."

Deirdre smiled. "Well, introductions later. I got something I want you to see." She pulled him to the back room.

"Oh, sure," said Priscilla, "But _we're_ not allowed back there!"

Deirdre walked into Wake's room. "Oh, Wake…"

Wake was lying on the floor again with her eyes closed. She smiled. "The death-bringer is here."

"Good guess," Deirdre answered, gesturing to Zack to come in.

Zack looked at Wake. "Well, how about this."

Wake rolled over and opened her eyes to look at him, propping her elbows on the floor and her chin in her hands. She smiled as she looked at him. "It's really you. I've been waiting for you."

Zack started to walk toward her. "When Loraine and that shadow demon were going at it a few months back…Loraine said we didn't know what was coming. The shadow demon possessing that Gail girl said that she knew her sire…you're her sire, aren't you?" Wake nodded. "Mind introducing yourself?"

"Name's Wake," she said, getting up, "And I'm no ordinary Vampire. I'm not just a Vampire." Her eyes started to glow red. "I am an Oasis. I am a combination of every kind of magic creature ever to have existed."

"Wow. And I'll bet you're not alone."

"I am now. Once, there were 5 of us." She started walking around the center of the room. "Me and my 3 sisters and brother. Many hell-children, Scourges of the Underworld, were also proceeding to claw their way through the bowels of the earth to the surface realm…this land… I was the first. I was to rule this land until my brethren came to destroy it with me. But I was banished."

"Until I got her out," spoke up Deirdre, "Raised her from the Land of Nothingness to restart her reign. The Dark Side is going to rule at her side, with you now residing at the rank of top warrior, until her fully-powered being can raise her fellow hell-children and destroy the world for good."

"Hmm…destroying the world…bring it on," Zack said.

"First things first," said Wake, "What do you say we take care of those dumb Loonies threatening to stand in our way…starting with your pathetic wish-granter sister…"

* * *

"You still not picking up anything, Rev?" Zara asked.

"Nothing," Rev answered, his eyes glowing red, "Zack's-completely-off-the-grid." His eyes returned to normal.

Zara grabbed her bag and started to leave. "If I'm not back with Zack, I doubt I'm coming back."

"Then I'm coming with you!" Duck said, quacking over to her.

"Duck," Zara said, "my brother, my problem."

"Yeah, but you and I are…uh…" Duck caught himself.

"Are what?" asked Zara.

"Yes, Duck, are what?" Kyra egged him on, hopefully.

"Uh, yeah, you're right, you should go alone."

Zara nodded and left.

Kyra grabbed Duck and pulled him into the left hallway. "Duck! That was your chance! Why didn't you tell her?"

"Tell her what? There's nothing to tell! Why would there be something to tell?" He started laughing insanely. "I gotta go." He started to walk off by Kyra pulled him back.

"Duck, we all know you like her. The only person who doesn't know for sure is her! You're gonna have to say something eventually."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll scoop out your brains and store nuts in your head."

Duck whimpered. "What?"

"Nothing. I've always wanted to say that!" Kyra walked off.

Duck groaned. He had no idea how to tell her. Shouldn't Tech and Trinity go first? He looked at Tech and Trinity…

Tech gazed at Trinity. _Why can't I talk to her? I need to say something…_

Outside, Cassandra was sneaking down the street to the street the hideout was on (yes, she knew where it was) under the disguise of a turtle. She came to a street corner and saw Zara coming. She quickly backed away.

Zara turned the corner and started walking the way Cassandra had been going. She past an alleyway and heard a noise inside. She gasped and whirled around, looking through it. "Hello? Someone there? Zack?" She walked into the alley…

"Hey."

Zara gasped and whirled around…again…and smiled at the sight she saw.

"Miss me, sis?" asked Zack.

"Zack!" Zara grabbed him and hugged him. "Yeah, I missed you! Where were you?"

"Looking for you, actually…and now trying to breathe!"

"Oh, sorry," Zara said, backing off. She smiled again. "What happened?"

"Long story short: none of your business." Zack started to walk off.

Zara stopped smiling and stopped him. "What do you mean none of my business? Of course, it's my business. We're twins!"

"Maybe it's best you leave this game to the big boys."

"Zack, what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean what's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with me."

"Zack, you never treat me like this. You never treat anyone like this! Did you hit your head during that explosion? Did something happen during your coma?"

Zack scoffed and turned away from her. "I don't need this and I don't need you." He left.

Zara was practically in tears. Something had happened to her brother… She started crying and ran off.

Cassandra dropped her disguise and ran after her.

Zara ran into the hut and went into the elevator and down to the hideout.

Cassandra watched all this and closed the door to the hut behind her. She decided to give Zara some time to cool off before following her into the hideout. Why had Zack been acting like that with his own twin sister? Wait a minute…Deirdre said something about traumatic experiences…what was it?

Zara stormed in, dropped her bag on the couch, and ran to her room before anyone could see her tears.

"Hello?" Kyra said. She followed Zara. She came into the hall soon enough to Zara close her door. Kyra snuck up to the door. She prepared to knock on the door, but stopped when she heard Zara crying inside. She slowly pulled her hand back.

Zara sat on her bed curled up in a ball. She fell onto her pillow and started sobbing. She really had lost everything she'd ever cared about…or had she? No, Duck obviously didn't like her. No one was banging her door down coming to comfort her—

_KNOCK, KNOCK!_

Zara snapped her head up and away from her pillow.

"Zara?" Kyra's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Go away!" Zara sniffed, wiped away a few tears, and threw the pillow at the doors as hard as she could. Halfway to the door, it turned into a brick. It banged the door and turned back to a pillow as it fell back to the ground. Zara noticed this. She had been wanting to slam the door shut even thought it was already shut…well, the slam came out. Then she remembered when she'd gone after the Dark Side's 4 Vamp girls and how she'd not had to verbalize her wishes. That was it! Zack's coma was strengthening him, so their twin bond was strengthening her. Now that it'd worn off and Zack had left, she was only accessing that strengthened portion of her power during emotional outbursts. Something must be going on with Zack if she was so powerful at its peak…

Kyra heard the slam on the door. She wondered what had happened. Zara must be really upset. She took a minute and started to walk off.

Zara got up, wiped off her tear-burnt eyes, and looked at the door. She focused her power. She thought about she wanted…and without having to say or think the words "I wish", the door opened. She gasped.

Kyra heard the door opening. She whirled around and saw Zara coming out of her room.

Zara looked at Kyra and forced out a half-smile. She looked at her feet, the door closing itself behind her.

Kyra took notice of this and gasped.

Zara looked up at her. "Yeah, freaking me out, too."

"What happened?"

Zara sighed, wrapping her arms around her waist and throwing one in the air. "I honestly don't know." She walked past the team leader and back to the living room.

Kyra looked after her. Something must be going on with the twins… She shook this thought away and followed Zara.

"So you didn't find him?" Duck asked Zara.

"I…don't know. I hope not."

"O…K…?"

Kyra came up to them. "Alright, we don't need to think about this now. We need to worry about the Dark Side."

"I wouldn't worry about them." Everyone turned to the door and saw Cassandra, no disguise, coming in. "You have me for that."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kyra pushed Cassandra against the wall. "What do you want?"

"I'm sick of the Dark Side pushing me around. During that year I was helping Deirdre, I realized they're nothing _but_ evil and I'm not…I have to face it. I'm not one of them. I'm one of you."

"How do we know we can trust her?" said Nathan.

"ELLIOT!" Kyra cried.

Elliot stood up from his seat. "She's telling the truth. No lie. And I'm not lying either. She was never one of them."

Kyra looked back at Cassandra, who smiled. "OK, fine. Could give us a sneak peek of the Dark Side's inner workings."

"No problem. Just get everyone in here."

_5 minutes later…_

"So what do we have here?" asked Orion.

Ace looked at Cassandra. "You tell us."

Cassandra sighed. "Well, I assume we all know Deirdre?"

"Who doesn't?" asked Arra.

"Gotcha. Well, then there's their 4 Vamps—Loraine, Meredith, Astrid, and Josephine—who also have some powers, believe it or not. I guess a couple of you have gotten a taste of Loraine's Blood-Song."

"I sure did," said Gail.

"Right. And then Meredith is…technically, an elemental."

"I got that one, too," Gail said.

"Uh huh. Well, Astrid can summon monsters and Josephine can make anyone fear anything…even bunnies. Don't ask me how I know that one."

"No problem there," said Nathan. Kyra hit him.

"Well, then there's Roscoe who is half-Werewolf and can sprout poisoned porcupine needles…"

"Which explains the poisoned puncture marks on Zadavia's body," said Tech, "I was wondering what that was about."

"And Jeff who can create stuff and make it disappear—kind of a mix of illusion and imagination—and his 2 buddies Axel and Priscilla, who can, respectively, 'play tug-o'-war' with anything and engrave/burn messages onto any surface."

"Which explains the torn apart door to her lair," Tech continued, "and the burn marks in her throat." He shuddered.

Cassandra nodded. "And then Scarlet, who can manipulate all forces of nature; Dominic, who can scratch someone by swiping at the air; Brody, who can implant a person's soul into any object so that they live for as long as that objects is intact; Cheyenne, who can compute any problem in her head and who totally stole my appearance-altering gimmick; Claire, a clairvoyant Witch who can save one life in exchange for another person's death; Xavier, a Warlock who can change colors like a chameleon and choose when to breathe; Mickey, who can shape-shift; Cici, who can throw rocks—why that power is limited to rocks, I'll never know; Robin, who can block mutant abilities; Flynn, who can give inanimate objects human characteristics; Emmett, who got a joke power of summoning flying squirrels; Zeke, who can manipulate the volume of any creature; and Tex, a mouse that can grow to over 10 times his real size."

"Wow," said Kyra, keeping track of all this on a note pad, "That means they have 22 people now that you've left."

"And whatever this ritual is gonna do," pointed out Cassandra, "In fact, Deirdre and her 4 undead buddies have a secret room that we're not allowed in. I think that's where they're preparing the ritual…maybe…"

"So basically, you were one of them and you still know nothing," said Trinity.

"We know about their 22 people," said Lexi.

"Yeah, and we just have…" Byron started counting heads. "…24. Oh! We're 2 up!"

"We're not counting Howie!" said Gail.

"And I guess we can't officially count Zack until we know where he is," said Zara.

"Then I guess we're even."

"Then _I_ guess we're set to go after them," said Kyra.

"What?" everyone else cried.

"We're not ready!" said Valerie, "Come on, they've got 4 Vampires, a clairvoyant Witch, a chameleon Warlock that doesn't have to breathe, a giant mouse, Deirdre, whatever this ritual's gonna do, and a guy that can summon an army of flying squirrels! And we have 7 Witches and Warlocks, the Loonatics, and one of their own. We can't fight them!"

"Then we need Zack," said Gail.

"No!" Zara said without thinking. Everyone turned to her in surprise. "I mean…Zack is probably still disoriented from his coma. And even with him outnumbering them, they still out-power us. If we're going after them now, all we can do is hope for the best and trust that we have what we need right here."

"But we don't!" said Duck, "I hate to disagree with you, Zara, but Val's right. We can't face them. Nothing can fix that."

"We have to do this, guys," said Kyra, "We need to get them in the weak spot, which we can't find and reach until we've infiltrated them and started fighting them off, and Cassandra's defection isn't enough for that. Sure, we have _their_ information, but it's the _ritual_ we need to know about. We need to break into their fortress and get Elliot to corner Deirdre so we can figure out what this ritual is cooking up so we can stop them. And that isn't gonna happen if we don't go after them. Get ready. 'Cause tomorrow night, whenever Cassandra says it's best, we're going after them."

_Dark Side's fortress…_

_Tomorrow night…_

_When Cassandra says its best…_

Lindy busted down to door to the Dark Side's building.

Deirdre whirled around to face her. "Oh, look. One of the Loonies finally snapped."

Cassandra came up behind Lindy, putting her elbow on her shoulder and smirking at Deirdre.

Deirdre stopping smiling. "Oh, nuts."

Cassandra took off her gloves and stormed in, the rest of the team following.

Mickey scoffed. "We can take these nuts." Mickey started at them…

…and Cassandra grabbed her arm, sending a shockwave through her and knocking her backwards and into Cici. Cassandra looked at the rest of the Dark Side. "And so said, you back off."

Loraine scoffed. "You don't scare us."

Zara glared at her, holding up a stake.

"That doesn't scare us either."

Gail held up a crossbow.

Loraine thought this over, remembering Gail's powers… "OK, you we're scared of."

Elliot cornered Deirdre, grabbing her arm.

Kyra approached her. "Alright, let's keep this simple: why've you been non-stop killing innocent people?"

Deirdre smirked. "Simple. To nourish the creature I raised."

"They've already done the ritual," Cassandra realized.

"Then what did you raise?" Zara asked.

Suddenly, the back door burst open, revealing Wake standing on the other side, kicking it off it's hinges and across the room with more force than Lindy and Slam put together could ever muster. Wake smiled. "Me."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Deirdre pushed Elliot off. "Oh, you're gonna get it now."

Gail scoffed and turned her crossbow aim at Wake, firing and piercing her in the heart. Wake fell to the ground. Gail smiled and turned back to the group. "That was ea—"

"OK!" Gail whirled around and saw Wake getting up and yanking out the arrow, the wound instantly healing. "That hurt!" She snapped the bolt into pieces and dropped the splinters on the floor. She then smiled, giggling. "Not!"

Gail stared at this in fear and confusion. Nothing could break a solid steel-and-wood-fused crossbow bolt! Not even a Vampire…

"You can't hurt an Oasis, kid. But nice try. Really caught the heart." She pushed her hand out and Gail was launched back by an invisible force and into the wall by Mickey and Cici.

Mickey looked at Gail and growled…wait, growled?

Gail looked at her to see her changing into a bear. "OK…shape-shift and transform are synonyms. Good to know." Mickey swiped at her with claw, but she jumped up and away.

Kyra summoned an elephant after Mickey, but Wake waved her hand, un-summoning the elephant.

Suddenly, a battle was erupting. Tex grew; Emmett summoned his flying squirrels; Cassandra electrocuted everyone she knew wasn't on her side [anymore]; Kyra summoned every animal she could think of; Duck kept firing eggs; Lexi brain-blasted the Dark Side; Ace laser-blasted the Dark Side; Slam went into tornado mode…and so on.

Trinity came into the middle of the room. She held up her hands and the ground rumbled. The floor started to crack and turned into rocks floating in the air. She started to launch her attack, but Cici recognized them as rocks and deflected the attack. Trinity wasn't able to jump out of the way before a rock smashed into her.

"Tree!" Orion and Tech immediately rushed to her side. While helping her, they blocked everyone else's attacks.

Zara looked around. She needed to try and open her powers again… Suddenly, she was pulled to the side. "What are you—Zack?"

Zack looked at her. "Yeah, it's me. Looks like you could need a little help."

"Listen, about the things you said earlier—"

"Not now! We're in the middle of a battle here!"

"Right. What about that Oasis thing? Can't you fear-ify her?"

"I can't. Wake's not afraid of anything. You may need to retreat."

Zara looked at him. "What? What do you mean '_you_ might have to retreat'? Don't you mean 'we'?"

"Yeah, that's what I meant. I don't know where—"

"And you didn't even try to use your powers. How would you know that she's not afraid of anything?"

"Well, I—"

"And how'd you know her name was Wake?"

"I thought she said that—"

"If she did, you weren't here. Or were you? Were you…with them?"

"Zar, that's crazy—"

"Don't call me that!" Zara shrieked. Her voice pierced through the battle until everyone stopped and turned their attention to them. "Your eyes aren't blue, Zack." Zack looked at her for a few more seconds, his reddish-black eyes glaring at her. "What's going on?"

Deirdre groaned. "Give it up, Zack. She's onto us."

"'Us'?" Zara asked.

"Tried my best here," said Zack, "She's unbreakable."

Zara stared at her brother. What was wrong with him?

Wake turned her gaze to Zara and smiled. "That's right, kid. He's ours."

Zara stared at them in sadness, shock, and confusion. "No…that can't be true…"

Zack started backing away from her to Deirdre. "Face it, sis. I'm one of them."

Zara was practically in tears again. Then she got it. Zack wasn't one of them, they stole him! The anger swelled up inside her. "That tears it." She took a step forward and Wake was launched back into the wall.

Wake started laughing. "Looks like someone's tapping in."

Zack glared at his sister, his eyes filling with anger of their own. "She's not the only one." He jumped at her.

Zara pushed him off before he came within 5 feet of her.

Duck started at her.

Zara whipped around to face him, knocking him a few steps back and giving him the message to leave this to her. "My brother, my problem."

"Oh, please!" Meredith snapped, summoning the Vile-Vines, "You can't stop us."

Us. There was that word again. Zack wasn't one of them! Zara turned to her. "You stay out of this!" The Vines stopped and went after Meredith in turn.

Claire saw all this. _All for her brother…I've never had that…I want that…Maybe I'm on the wrong side… _She looked at Xavier.

Xavier looked back at her, getting the same message. He nodded.

Priscilla saw them. She understood what they were thinking about… She sighed, realizing they were probably right.

Wake got off the wall. "Alright. Moving on…" Zara moved to zap her again, but she held out her hand, deflecting the attack. Zara was pushed back by her own assault. "Back to the fight?"

"I'm for it!" Cici cried, "Who needs these losers?" She zapped a rock at Nathan, knocking him out.

"Nat!" Kyra cried, going for him. She glared at Cici, elephant-ing her.

Mickey turned into an elephant and got into an elephant fight.

And so the fight resumed.

While this kept going, Zara and Zack got into a confrontation.

"You must have known this day was coming," said Zack.

"This isn't you, Zack," said Zara, "This was never supposed to happen."

"It was always meant to happen, sis. As was this." He waved his hand.

Duck fell to the ground.

"Duck!" Zara cried. She ran for Duck. She saw him weakening in the way Zack's powers affected people. She grabbed Duck's chest with her hands, healing him. Zack started laughing. Zara glared at him, knocking him back. Zara kept healing Duck, but she was having a hard time countering Zack's attack. She felt for a pulse. Duck was barely breathing. "Oh, come on! Come back!"

Cassandra saw this. "Move!" she commanded, pushing Zara off. She knelt down on Duck's body and grabbed his chest, sending a shock that reawakened his heartbeat (like a defibrillator).

Duck got up, weakened almost entirely.

Zara started helping him up.

Gail got into a mess with Loraine.

Loraine pushed her against the wall. "_ Let all your cares slide, leave the pain behind…_"

Gail grabbed her stomach and felt blood coming out. "Oh, not again!" She dropped to the ground.

Loraine looked at this and smiled. "_…and let your worries fade away _"

"Hey! Get off her!"

[Loraine looks in camera in confusion.] Loraine looked up and saw Howie jumping through the 15-feet-up window and onto her. He grabbed her and she felt a burning sensation making her weaker.

Howie helped up his cousin and pulled her to Zara. "Heal her fast! I've got some helping to do!" He jumped up and landed on Mickey's back (he could tell it was Mickey because she still had her eyes (he'd been spying for a while)). He kicked her back. "Giddy-up!"

Mickey roared and turned back to a human. "Get off me, kid!" She pushed him off. Then she realized she'd fallen for his trick. "Uh oh." She just barely dodged getting stomped by the elephant.

Zara finished healing Gail and looked around. There were casualties on both sides (no one fatally injured, though) and no one seemed to be getting any better until brought to her, which wasn't happening easily with all the bad guys attempting to block the paths to her. "Kyra, it's not working! They're too strong for us!"

"I warned you!" Valerie yelled.

"Fine!" Kyra called back, helping up a coming-to Nathan, "I can't believe I'm saying this—mostly because I thought I would never have to—but…FALL BACK!"

The Loonatics and L-Force (Howie in the place of Zack) ran out.

"I knew they were too chicken to face us," said Deirdre.

"Especially with me with you now," said Zack.

Zara stopped. "Wait!" Everyone stopped running. Zara ran back to the building. She built up all her anger and strength and pounded on the foundation wall, breaking it.

Deirdre heard a rumbling. She looked up and saw the ceiling cracking. "Uh oh." The building started to cave in on them.

Zara smiled and kept walking. "Now it's over."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_The next morning…_

Trinity, Duck, Nathan, and Gail were all in the infirmary (Zara had been able to heal everyone else's injuries).

Tech was in the infirmary, checking on them. Trinity had a few broken bones, but could heal easily with her powers and Zara's strengthening her; Duck's major blood flow was clogged and some of his vital organs were malfunctioning in certain ways, but he would recover within the week; Nathan just had a bruised skull (the rock that hit him wasn't that big) so he was just really sore; and Gail was fine except for the aftershock of Loraine's powers. Tech looked at all 4 sleeping patients and smiled. He walked up to Trinity and started adjusting her pillow…

Trinity groaned. "Tech…"

Tech looked at her. She couldn't possibly be waking up in this condition, not yet!

Trinity smiled. "Tech…"

She was still asleep! Tech smiled back. He took her hand. After a few minutes, he let go. He looked at her for a few more minutes, then moved on to Duck.

Duck was sleeping, too. "Zara…saving you is all the thanks I need…"

Tech rolled his eyes, trying to not to laugh, then moved on to Nathan.

Nathan rolled over on the bed. "Kyra…"

Tech looked at Nathan in surprise. Nathan liked Kyra? Who knew? Kyra certainly liked Nathan, but he didn't know it was…like that! He immediately moved on to Gail before Nathan started saying something like Duck had been saying.

Gail sighed. She was waking up. "Zack?" She rolled over and looked at Tech as memories came flooding back.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Tech said.

"Right, Zack's…"

"…with the Dark Side."

"Kind of hoping that was all a bad dream. We've got Cassandra, though, right?"

"Right."

"Doesn't really make up for it, though. I never thought that Zack would…"

"Yeah, neither did we. Zara sure didn't see it coming."

Gail smiled. "We're never gonna get him back, are we?"

Tech looked at her. "The way he talked…I don't think so."

"Zara did crush them, though, right? 'Cause they all totally deserved that."

Tech smiled. "Yep. But they're probably gonna just keep coming back."

"We'll beat them in the end. I just know it."

Tech smiled again. "Yeah, hopefully, we will. You know, we probably wouldn't have made it very far if your little cousin didn't show up. You probably would've died."

Gail smiled. "Guess he's good for something after all."

Tech smiled one last time and left.

Kyra and Zara…and the rest of the team, really, were all gathered in the living room.

Tech walked in. "Well, Trinity's doing better, probably gonna heal in less than 2 weeks."

"Oh, good," said Orion.

"And Duck is almost fixed, as are Nathan and Gail."

"So all we really have to worry about is Zack and the Dark Side," said Zara.

"Don't worry, Zar," said Kyra, "We'll get him back."

"We don't know that. He talked like he was never coming back."

"That was talk."

"Actually, he wasn't lying," said Elliot, "I would've sensed if…" Kyra slowly turned to glare at him. "I'm talking too much, aren't I?"

"Little bit."

"What about me?" asked 12-year-old Howie.

Kyra looked at him and smiled. "You get to join the team, too."

"Really?"

"We couldn't have gotten this far without you, Gail excluded. We kind of need you."

"I guess my jump and soul-reading are good for something."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cassandra jumped in, "'Soul-_reading_'? You burned through Loraine like she was paper and you were a match."

"Because she doesn't have a soul."

"Oh."

"Speaking of Loraine," said Jake, "I wonder what the Dark Side's up to now…"

_With the Dark Side…_

Wake punched through the boards. She waved her hand, expelling all of the other rubble.

The Dark Side started climbing out, including Zack. Everyone seemed to be fine.

"Alright," said Wake, "Now it's personal!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

Yay! I finished another one! Pretty soon, I may get through this first season! Alright, if you missed something along the way here, let me recap so that you don't misunderstand the future stories: Deirdre had destroyed the Loonatics' tower and put Zack into a coma in the process and he awoke evil; Zara and Zack, twins, both have extended powers now for some reason; Cassandra was evil but has defected (switched sides); Gail likes Zack (got to him a little late) and is extremely defensive of her 6-years-younger cousin, Howie, who has just joined the team; Zara likes Duck, who likes her back; Tech likes Trinity, who likes him back but has an over-defensive younger brother, Orion, who is slightly against their relationship; Kyra, the L-Force team leader, likes Nathan, who likes her back; Ace and Lexi may get together...; and, finally, Wake, the Oasis (combination of every magic creature) that Deirdre (who isn't entirely human) awoke through a ritual and is nourishing with innocent souls, has revealed her existence to the Loonatics and L-Force but they still don't know exactly what/who she is or why she's here. Keep reading to find out what's gonna happen!


End file.
